FORT FORT (CBS11) – It’s not Black Friday yet, but one new shopping destination is already drawing big crowds!
In North Fort Worth sits the forty-fourth location for Tanger Outlets, a company still betting that big brands, like Nike, Gap and H&M combined with big bargains, will be enough to keep people coming to brick-and-mortar stores.
Parking lots were full within the first few hours and the first impression from shoppers. “Very nice. Beautiful, beautiful,” comments one shopper.
That was exactly the reaction retailers were looking for.
“These are kinda some mainstream stores that you don’t really see everywhere,” says one shopper.
After the Shops at Clearfork opened on Fort Worth’s southwest side last month, the outlets are the second traditional shopping center to open in the city this Fall.
Tanger’s CEO said over the summer, his company doesn’t believe that in the future, only online retailers will survive.
Melissa Garcia, Tanger Outlets General Manager, says, “People love outlets, and people love a good bargain. In good times, people love to save money, and in hard times people need to, so outlets are most definitely still relevant.”
For shoppers like Linda Rogers, who was there with friends when the doors opened at 9 a.m., traditional shopping is still tops. “I buy by feel. If it feels good I’m more inclined to buy it rather than what color, what style whatever. But I’m seventy-five I just do things like that.”
The outlets will provide nine hundred full and part time jobs.
And it’s a year-round attraction in an area where the Texas Motor Speedway used to be the lone draw.
Then Buc-ees opened last year, and construction is booming, with apartments and restaurants next on the list.
The shopping center is almost 95 percent full for the opening weekend, with five more stores set to open, before the holiday shopping season.